STAND. COM. REP. NO.351-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: H.B. No. 2552

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 2552 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF LANDOWNER FOR SAFE HARBOR AGREEMENTS AND HABITAT CONSERVATION PLANS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to allow safe harbor agreements and habitat conservation plans to take place on public lands by broadening the definition of "landowner".

The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, the Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, and an individual testified in support of this bill. The Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii supported the intent of this measure. Earthjustice and Hawaii's Thousand Friends offered comments. Opposing this bill were the Hawaii Audubon Society, Life of the Land, and Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter.

Under chapter 195D, Hawaii Revised Statutes:

(1) Safe harbor agreements provide encouragement and regulatory certainty for landowners who are interested in promoting endangered and threatened species on their property, but are concerned by the long-term liabilities those species might create; and

(2) Habitat conservation plans provide a flexible framework for landowners to proceed with land use projects, despite the presence of endangered or threatened species on their land.

Both the safe harbor agreements and habitat conservation plans provide opportunities to promote the conservation and recovery of threatened and endangered species in concert with economic development and regional conservation efforts.

However, the law currently applies only to "the owner of fee simple interest in private land", thereby excluding State and county lands and private lease lands from consideration. This can limit the flexibility of government. For example, DLNR currently manages land near Kapolei, where Abutilon menziesii, an endangered species, is found. Housing and a road are planned in this area. However, because safe harbor agreements and habitat conservation plans are not applicable to public lands, the State lacks the option of accommodating the endangered specie found on the site and allowing the planned development to proceed.

Your Committees have amended this bill by subjecting Board of Land and Natural Resources approval of any habitat conservation plan or safe harbor agreement for public lands to legislative disapproval. This will ensure public scrutiny on proposed actions to take place on public lands.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2552, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2552, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection,

 

____________________________

HERMINA M. MORITA, Chair

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EZRA KANOHO, Chair